Nintendo Will Give You up to $20,000 If You Can Find Flaws in Its 3DS

Nintendo is offering a $100 to $20,000 reward to players who can point out issues with its 3DS.

The gaming giant launched a bug bounty program through HackerOne program for customers to identify potential security issues with the 3DS console so that the company can plug those holes. Nintendo wants to prevent game piracy, cheating, and the dissemination of inappropriate content to children.

“Nintendo’s goal is to provide a secure environment for our customers so that they can enjoy our games and services,” the HackerOne website read. “In order to achieve this goal, Nintendo is interested in receiving vulnerability information that researchers may discover regarding Nintendo’s platforms.”

Increasingly, big companies have been offering bounties to users and hackers who can find flaws with their products. That includes Apple, Fiat Chrysler, and Uber.

Why ‘Super Mario Run’ Won’t Be as Popular as ‘Pokemon Go’

The highly-anticipated Nintendo mobile game Super Mario Run will be a hit. But it won’t be as big as this year’s even bigger success, according to new research.

Nintendo’s Super Mario Run will generate $71 million in revenue during its first 30 days of availability in Apple’s App Store, mobile analytics company Sensor Tower is reporting, citing data it collected from the millions of smartphones its service is running on. That will put Nintendo’s game behind this year’s smash-hit Pokemon Go, which generated $143 million during its first 30 days of availability. Another popular title, Clash Royale, made $107 million in its first 30 days on iOS.

Nintendo unveiled Super Mario Run at Apple’s AAPL iPhone press event in September. The game will allow users to play as the iconic Mario character in a side-scrolling game designed to be played with one hand. The game, which is hitting Apple’s App Store on Dec. 15, will be free to download, but gamers who want the full experience will need to shell out a one-time charge of $9.99. The game will be made available on Android sometime next year.

According to Sensor Tower’s research, Super Mario Run could attract 20 million iOS users to the game within the first 30 days of availability. However, as the game is free to download, Nintendo will need to get those customers to pay the $10 fee to get access to the full game and generate the company revenue. Based on its $71 million estimate, Sensor Tower apparently believes Nintendo will be able to convert about 7 million, or about one-third, of those folks into paying customers.

Super Mario Run is an important release for Nintendo. The iconic game maker has slid into the third spot in the home console market behind Microsoft’s Xbox One msft and Sony’s PlayStation 4 sne, and the company is having trouble competing in the mobile-gaming market with smartphones and tablets. In a bid to improve its mobile standing, Nintendo has inched its way into smartphones, though its first release, a quasi-social-networking game called Miitomo, was met with tempered excitement. Super Mario Run is the game Nintendo ntdoy and analysts believe could make the company a success in mobile.

Still, Nintendo hasn’t lost sight of traditional gaming. The company has unveiled a new home console called the Switch that it plans to release next year. Exact pricing and availability are not yet available, but the Switch appears designed to help users play games at home or on the road without needing to change hardware.

Looking ahead, Sensor Tower says it’ll be “watching most closely” Nintendo’s ability to convert Super Mario Run users into paid customers. It added that Nintendo’s success at that might ultimately come down to the appeal of the game’s “free demo content.”

The Creator of ‘Super Mario Run’ Explains Nintendo’s New iPhone Game

Nintendo’s famed video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has spent his career developing some of the world’s most iconic and cherished video games, from the Super Mario franchise to Zelda and Donkey Kong. As video game consoles have changed over the years, so have the ways in which people play them: the Wii heralded motion controls, the Wii U introduced a dual-screen experience to Nintendo fans for the first time, and the 3DS handheld system brought Mario and others to life in 3D.

This year, Nintendo ntdoy began to venture into a widely lucrative yet untapped territory for the company: mobile gaming. December 15th marks the launch of Super Mario Run for the iPhone and iPad aapl, which will be the first time the iconic plumber will be making his way to mobile devices. TIME spoke with Mario creator Miyamoto about the challenges that come with bringing Mario to a new platform and more.

The following transcript that has been edited for length and clarity.

TIME: This is the first time Mario is coming to the iPhone. What were some of the challenges that came with bringing Mario to a new medium?

Miyamoto: I’ve been using smartphones myself for many years so I had a good idea in mind for what would be a good way to bring Mario to smartphones. But I think for us, the biggest challenge was really in zeroing in on those core elements of Mario that would be best suited for play on smart devices. We had, during the Wii and 3DS days, experimented with ideas where Mario ran automatically and you would play by making Mario jump. And after doing some of those experiments we felt that would probably be the best way to bring Mario to iPhone, where you’re just playing with one hand just controlling the jumps. And once we zeroed in on that it became relatively straightforward for us in terms of the game development.

And then in terms of actual development challenges, Nintendo has always focused its development on a single platform at a time. And of course we’re designing the hardware and the games. And so when we designed our hardware for gaming we’re doing it in a way that offers very stable performance for gaming. But because smartphones are a multi-use device, we had some challenge in trying to get the performance out of the system that we wanted. But just working through development and with the team we were able to get it to where we were able to get the performance we wanted from iPhone to offer a stable gameplay experience.

Nintendo has always been great at using hardware in creative ways that complement gameplay. We saw that with Wii U with Super Mario 3D World, where you have to sometimes interact with elements on the tablet screen to progress through the level on the TV screen. What was it like bringing that mentality to the iPhone?

One of the challenges in game development is the very first time you make a new game, you generally design it so that as broad of an audience as possible can play. But then gradually as you make more and more sequels, you start to make the game more complex and more challenging for the fans that have played the series. And you gradually get to a point where it becomes more difficult for beginners to be able to get into the game. So this has been sort of a focus of ours during the DS and the Wii days, where we’ve sort of tried to go back to the roots of the original gameplay and reset so that it has an easier entry point for people. And that was a very important thing for us with Super Mario Run as well.

We didn’t think about bringing an existing Mario gameplay to iPhone and just porting over something that you controlled with buttons before. We really focused on, what is the best Mario experience for what you get with iPhone?

Of course one of the advantages or one of the things about interactive entertainment that people like is the ability to completely control everything themselves. But even if you have some automatic support structures built in, it can still be fun for people to interact with what’s on the screen. And with Mario games in particular, it really is that sense of satisfaction that you get when Mario gets to the flagpole at the end.

But I also think that one of the most entertaining elements of interactive entertainment is that you as the player are able to look at what you’ve done and what’s coming ahead of you. And it’s really fun to think about, ‘Oh, I should have done this a different way,’ or, ‘This is coming and now I have to adjust to that.’ By playing these levels and replaying Super Mario Run, I think people will find a lot of fun just in slight changes to the timing of their taps in order to get all of the colored coins or maximize their score.

How did you pick and choose what gameplay elements are right for the iPhone and which ones aren’t? I noticed, for example, that I didn’t see any power-ups other than the mushroom in Super Mario Run like there are in the console games. Is that something we’ll eventually see in a mobile Mario game?

I think with this being our first Super Mario game on iPhone, we’ve designed this both in what’s the best experience but also with a long road ahead of us in terms of what else we can do on iPhone. So perhaps you can look forward to some of that at some point in the future. But one thing we have done this time is that you’ll be able to play not just as Mario, but after going through the game and unlocking some things and meeting some conditions you’ll be able to play as some of the other characters as well.

In previous console-based Mario games, playing with different characters can give you various gameplay advantages. Will we see this carry over to Super Mario Run?

It’s less on having those characters to achieve or accomplish specific tasks, and more of giving players a tool to unlock more of their gameplay creativity. Even if you’re trying to collect the same group of colored coins, doing so with a different character will require you to do it in a different way. So that can be fun for the players to explore.

This is one of the first mobile games Nintendo is releasing. We saw the launch of Miitomo earlier this year, which is more of a social app, and Pokémon Go, which is a geolocation app. What other genres are interesting to you?

There’s a number of other areas that we’re looking at. But in the near term, the ones that will be coming out are a Fire Emblem game and Animal Crossing. And then of course each of these different games appeal to slightly different audiences. We see that a lot of parents often buy Mario games for their kids. From a pricing and payment structure, we felt it was important that parents would just pay once and then their kids can play to their hearts’ content. So what we’ll do with each of these games is look at who’s the main audience playing and we’ll devise a pricing structure for each game that’s applicable for each audience.

An app like Super Mario Run is more condensed than a Wii U title. How did you balance incorporating a variety of characters and level types?

Just because of the history of the franchise, we have a lot of assets to choose from. Actually for us, one of the biggest challenges was deciding what doesn’t go in because we were very quickly able to fill it up with content. Our approach was really to focus in on what are the right enemies for a game when Mario runs automatically. What are the right course styles? Those were the decisions that we were making, was zeroing in on those types of elements. But what that means is we still have a lot of ingredients left over that we can continue to cook with, so to speak.

A few things that we did, for example, is we took the Bullet Bill characters that usually come at you from the direction that you’re heading and we changed them and made them red, and now we have them coming at you from behind. The spiny characters with spikes on their shells are also little bigger so they’re easier to see.

The Kingdom Builder mode is a relatively new concept for Mario games. What made you decide to include that in Super Mario Run?

There are a couple of reasons. One is there is actually a game in Japan that I’ve been playing on a smartphone with my wife, it’s called Neko Atsume, It’s sort of a cat collecting game. From that, I really got the sense of having this thing on your phone that you interact with on a regular basis, and then you grow and build it up from there, is a very compelling feature. And certainly Nintendo has had games that have done this in the past on our own platforms.

The other reason behind it, typically with the Super Mario games, what you’re really doing is you’re sort of strategizing and working your way through individual levels. And we wanted to have a method for you to save the accomplishments that you get in each of those levels and have a place where those accomplishments can kind of build up. And that’s where the idea for the Kingdom Mode came from.

Why is this the right time to bring Mario to the iPhone?

A big factor is that over the past few years smartphones have just gotten more and more powerful to the point where the performance that we’re able to get out of the device is finally on par with what we expect from the gameplay performance and response for our games.

And then I think also there was a period, certainly for many years, our devices were the first sort of computing or interactive entertainment devices kids came into contact with. And that would be the first place where they experienced games. But now as more and more parents are giving hand-me-down phones to their kids, kids are often times coming into contact with games on smart devices at earlier and earlier ages. We wanted to be able to reach those kids on those devices so that they’ll be able to experience our games and those characters there, but then when they want to play a more in-depth experience they’ll gravitate towards our devices to do that.

And then also I think we’ve seen this with Pokémon Go, there are a lot of adults that, as they’ve gotten older, they’ve gravitated away from even purchasing gaming machines but they’re carrying a smartphone around with them. And all of a sudden, with Pokémon Go they’re reconnecting with Pokémon and playing Pokémon again. Our hope is with Super Mario Runthat we’ll be able to reconnect with a lot of people that grew up playing Mario and that they’ll come back and want to play some more of our games on our platforms as well.

Here’s What It’s Like to Play Nintendo’s ‘Super Mario Run’

In the decades since Mario’s inception, Nintendo’s stout, adventurous plumber has made his way to consoles of varying shapes and sizes, from the classic NES to the company’s 3DS handheld. But while Mario has grown, journeyed to new worlds and ultimately changed, the way players interact with his side-scrolling incarnations hasn’t.

Whether maneuvering Mario in the original Super Mario Bros. or last year’s Super Mario Maker for Wii U, gamers have held a controller in both hands, hammering buttons to interact with quirky two-dimensional worlds while dashing and leaping from left to right. Tap a button or tilt the joystick and Mario would start jogging, while pressing other buttons might prompt him to dash or hurl fireballs at approaching enemies.

No longer. With Super Mario Run, the company’s first mobile Mario game, the buttons are gone. Start the game and Mario begins to move automatically, zipping through otherworldly obstacle courses without input from the player. Gamers tap the screen to make him jump, or press and hold to make him leap higher. That’s because Mario’s newest platform-hopping adventure, which launches on December 15 for $9.99, was developed for iPhones and iPads (an Android version should emerge down the road). That move — in part a gambit designed to use its world-recognized IP to drive players back to core platforms like its upcoming Nintendo Switch console — forced the company to rethink the series’ iconic gameplay entirely.

In mobile gaming, a popular sub-genre sometimes called an “endless runner” sets the main character dashing automatically across the screen as players tap to perform jumps or other maneuvers. If you’ve played stuff like Temple Run, Despicable Me: Minion Rush or Subway Surfers, you know the drill. But after laying hands on the game at a press event, I can confirm that it’s not a Mario-themed clone of those titles. In classic Nintendo fashion, the company has managed to make Super Mario Run feel as versatile and satisfying as the Mario games it’s released for its own platforms over the years. Understanding how to play is simple and the gameplay remains rich and addictive, in other words, but true mastery is going to take plenty of practice.

Rather than focusing on where Mario moves or in which direction he runs, it’s how players orchestrate his leaps that gets him to the flagpole at the end of each stage, unlocking new challenges. Simply letting him beeline from one point to another doesn’t accomplish much. It’s the timing and longevity of taps and longer presses that boost Mario to his goal.

Mario automatically vaults over enemies as they approach, for instance, but tapping the screen at the top of these hops gives him extra height and allows him to collect coins. In many cases, players have to use these jumps in creative ways to advance through a level or snatch a special coin. During my demo, I found myself ricocheting off walls, bouncing atop the backs of Koupas, or grasping a ledge to avoid falling. Timing is everything in Super Mario Run — a carryover from prior Mario games that’s employed in novel ways here.

Players can choose from three different modes in Super Mario Run: World Tour, Toad Rally and Kingdom Builder. World Tour is essentially the game’s story mode, wherein players progress through levels and unlock different worlds. Toad Rally, by contrast, is a competitive mode in which players compete to collect more coins and impress as many mushroom-capped “Toads” as possible. To access this mode, gamers must collect Rally Tickets, which can be obtained by completing levels in the World Tour mode and collecting coins.

The bigger a player’s Toad following, the more he or she will be able to build up their kingdom. Players have to collect coins by playing through levels and coerce Toads to come live in their kingdom by impressing them in Toad Rally mode in order to acquire new buildings and structures in Kingdom Builder mode. Some of these additions are purely ornamental, but others unlock related features. A tiny house with a white roof and a red star includes a bonus game, for instance, while adding Luigi’s home to a player’s kingdom will introduce him as a playable character. (Toad and Yoshi can be unlocked in the same way.) But beware: Toads can leave a player’s side as quickly as they’ve chosen to join it. Losing a run to another player in Toad Rally mode can result in Toads leaving your team.

A big part of what’s made previous Mario games so addictive is the way they fold hidden challenges into levels, say the stars and stamps sprinkled throughout Super Mario 3D World. In the same way, Nintendo’s embedded goodies in Super Mario Run‘s World Tour mode that make levels worth replaying, such as collecting pink coins scattered through a game level. In most cases, reaching these coins requires a skillful tap that involves strategically timing a hop or springing off an enemy.

In some situations, Nintendo’s made it easier to grab these coins or avoid an adversary by planting a red block in Mario’s path, which stops him in his tracks to give the player time to adequately plan their jump. Once a player gathers all of the pink coins in a level, they then progress to the next challenge, where they must collect purple coins before progressing to a black coin phase. These coin-based mini-missions, combined with all the incentives to build an expansive Kingdom, suggest Super Mario Run should have plenty of replay value.

The new touch controls aside, the game’s levels should feel structurally familiar to anyone who’s played the arcade or console games. Familiar foes like Boos, Koopas and Goombas will thwart Mario’s progress. Some puzzles include choosing the right door to proceed to the next section of a level, just like in previous games, which helps Super Mario Run feel more like a traditional Mario game and not just another “runner.” Some characters have also been tailored to better suit the game’s mobile-centric controls. Bullet Bill, for example, no longer charges at Mario, but instead follows him as he sprints across a stage.

Mario’s debut on the iPhone aapl is filled with enough puzzles, challenges, and rewards to keep fans hooked. The one-time $9.99 price is a bit more than some iPhone owners are used to paying for a casual game, but Super Mario Run is also more polished and rich than most mobile titles I’ve encountered (it’s also a deliberate decision by Nintendo to deliver the full experience at that price). Nintendo ntdoy wonks have waited years for Mario to move to mobile, and fans will be relieved to know that his appeal translates well to smartphones. By bringing some of its biggest franchises to the mobile universe, Nintendo is keeping its franchises relevant, enlarging its celebrated brands, and setting the table for its own mobile maneuvers when Nintendo Switch arrives next spring.

Here’s Where You Can Get the NES Classic for Christmas

Urban Outfitters is selling Nintendo’s classic gaming console just in time for the holiday season.

On Tuesday, the clothing company is set to offer the NES Classic Edition, an updated version of the original 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System, in a flash sale on its website for about $59.98. That console is one of the best selling gaming devices of all time.

Nintendo nintendo-co-ltd first began offering the NES Classic Edition on Nov. 11, and it was met with massive demand. Walmartwmt held flash sales of the console spanning just a few minutes, only to see the NES Classic sell out immediately, the Verge reported.

Pokémon Sun and Moon Are Nintendo’s Fastest-Selling Games Ever In the Americas

Nintendo revealed that fans of its monster-catching role-playing games made Pokémon Sun and Moon the fastest-selling games in the history of the company in the Americas. I already reported that games are, collectively, outselling Call of Duty and every other November release so far this season on digital storefronts, and now Nintendo is confirming just how well the pocket monsters are performing. In the two weeks since Sun and Moon debuted, consumers in the Americas have purchased more than 3.7 million copies from physical retailers and the digital eShop store. That is an 85% increase compared to Pokémon X and Y in 2013 — and they were the previous record holder for the fastest-selling Nintendo game.

“With these huge sales figures, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon have proved themselves as two of the hottest video games to buy this holiday season,” Nintendo of America marketing boss Doug Bowser (no relation to the Koopa). “With great reviews and outstanding fan response, these next iterations in the Pokémon series are sure to please any player in the family.”

This massive debut for Sun and Moon is not coming out of nowhere. Nintendo has seen an increased interest in its Pokémon games and its 3DS hardware following the release of the hit mobile game Pokémon Go over the summer. That app, which The Pokémon Company made developer Niantic independently from Nintendo, is one of the most popular iOS or Android games ever made. It set records for the fastest app to reach $500 million in revenues and 500 million installs, and that popularity has now spilled back over into the latest entry in the long-running RPG series.

Now, Nintendo is attempting to repeat this formula of a mobile game leading into the sale of a release on one of its dedicated gaming devices with Super Mario Run. That iOS game will debut in December, and Nintendo plans to launch its new Switch hardware in March — and rumors suggest that the publisher will roll out that console with a new 3D Mario game. We’ll get to see if the stout plumber can keep pace with Pikachu soon.

This post was originally published on VentureBeat. All rights reserved.

Now You Can Truly Immerse Yourself in the Nintendo Experience

Nintendo nintendo announced Tuesday that it would be opening themed attractions at three major Universal Studios parks around the world.

According to a press statement, the parks featuring famous Nintendo characters will be built in two U.S. locations, in Orlando, Fla. and Los Angeles, alongside the park’s Japan location in Osaka.

“We are constantly amazed how the park developers are bringing the essence of our games to life in the real world. Together we are building it with an eye for what guests will actually experience,” video game creator at Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto said in a video teasing the collaboration.

The locations will include Nintendo themed rides, restaurants, and other entertainment features that aim to immerse guests in a “realm filled with iconic Nintendo excitement, gameplay, heroes and villains.”

“We are going to be able to create an entire Nintendo world, and as we continue to develop it, that world will become more immersive and more involved and more colorful and more exciting and more interactive.” Universal Creative Mark Woodbury said.

Nintendo announced its partnership with Universal Parks & Resorts, a division of Comcastcmcsa back in May, and details on when the parks may open or what characters might be used will be announced at a future date, the Wall StreetJournal reports.

Nintendo has traditionally marketed its games as friendly to all ages and there is a host of iconic characters to fill the parks with, including, Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and the pink ball of puff, Kirby—to name just a few.

“Imagine the fun of stepping into a larger-than-life Nintendo adventure. Gigantic Piranha Plants spring to life. Question blocks, power-ups and more surround you. And Mario and all his friends are there to pull you into a brand-new world,” Nintendo said in a press release.

Although, the company lags behind competitors Sony and Microsoft in sales of its latest console, Nintendo hopes the park will bring greater brand awareness among its consumers, reports the Journal.

Peanut Labs, a subsidiary of Research Now, found those results after it conducted the survey of more than 1,100 gamers to better understand mobile consumer needs, discovery, engagement, and monetization strategies. It sheds new light on some of the top games in the $36 billion mobile gaming market.

This study unveils key performance indicators for some of the biggest mobile games in the hopes of enlightening other mobile game developers, publishers, and marketers.

Among five hits that Peanut studied, Madden NFL Football enjoys the highest (more than 90 percent) recommend intent, where consumers say they will recommend it to their friends.

The survey found that multiple ways exist to engage and retain players. The mid-core game (which appeal to hardcore gamers but have short play sessions) Clash of Clans from Supercell uses push notifications aggressively. But another mid-core hit, Madden NFL Football, balances gameplay experience and push notifications to earn top honors and the highest user recommendation.

Meanwhile, the mid-core strategy game Mobile Strike from MZ achieves the highest play time, monetization, and lifetime value.

For branded or original-intellectual-property content, game creators may want to test consumers’ sentiment, price sensitivity, and trial/purchase intent early and frequently, Peanut Labs said.

A survey of the Research Now/Peanut Labs panel took place between October 12 and October 17, 2016.

Here’s When Nintendo’s Super Mario iPhone Game Comes Out

Nintendo’s on quite the run lately: Pokémon Go was a smash hit this summer, the NES Classic Edition is flying off store shelves, and fans are excitedly awaiting the Switch, the firm’s upcoming console.

Before the Nintendo Switch hits early next year, Nintendo ntdoy fans will have something else to enjoy: Super Mario Run, the company’s upcoming iPhone and iPad aapl game, will be released Dec. 15, Nintendo announced Tuesday.

The game will cost a flat price of $9.99. That’s a steep price for a mobile game, but it’s also a one-time thing, meaning Super Mario Run won’t be loaded with in-app purchases like many of the other mobile games out there.

Here’s how Nintendo describes Super Mario Run:

Super Mario Run is the first Super Mario Bros. game developed specifically for mobile devices. In the game, Mario runs forward on his own, but relies on the tap of a single finger to jump over obstacles, avoid enemies, pull off stylish moves, collect coins and reach the flagpole to complete courses.

People Are Selling Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition for Hundreds of Dollars

Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition is out today, as in sold out today, as in chances are if you’re just stepping out the door to pick one up, it’s probably too late.

For now, anyway, but not forever. To keep up with predictably high demand for its $60 revisitation of 30 classic Nintendo Entertainment System games (with optional high-definition output), the company saysit’s “working hard”to produce“a steady flow of additional systems through the holiday shopping season and into the new year.”

You’ll just have to be patient, and keep an eye on—or reserve one off backorder via—your retailer of choice.

It’s worth being patient. Opportunists are pushing the system price up to silly levels, managing to pull off eBay sales in the $200 to $500 range. Amazon, which currently lists the system as “only available from third-party sellers,” has it at $275 starting. That, I shouldn’t need to tell anyone, is nuts, no matter how misty-eyed Nintendo’s tiny gray, black and red time machine makes you.

This is what happens when you roll out a pint-sized, impulse-priced slice of nostalgia, then dangle it before an audience that views Nintendo’s debut console (1983 in Japan, 1985 in the U.S.) as the cradle for so much of what’s happened in video gaming since. I have no idea whether Nintendo produced a number commensurate with perceived demand, but that this could turn out to be 2016’s Tickle Me Elmo should come as a surprise to no one—including Nintendo.

So stand by, and hopefully Nintendo can make good on its promise to ramp up supply in time to meet demand heading into the holiday shopping weeks.